


A Marvelous Day

by MusicPlayer81



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Good for her, Lin FINALLY takes a day off, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, and she gets to spend it with Chen!!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26692063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicPlayer81/pseuds/MusicPlayer81
Summary: Lin hardly gets to spend time with her three-year-old daughter Chen.....until a rain storm intervenes and she just HAS to take the day off. A look into Lin's day off and how she spends it with her daughter.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	A Marvelous Day

**Author's Note:**

> I've been toying with this idea for a while--the idea of Lin's rare day off, and how she spends it with a little Chen, and how she realizes that she needs more of a balance between work and life. So here it is! Lin's day off, and with little Chen! Chen Beifong is my OC--you'll also see her in my other works, such as "A Conference for the Books," "A Study in Understanding," and "Guess I'm Going with You." Please enjoy, read and review! :)

"Mama?"

Lin peeled her eyes open to find two green eyes staring expectantly back at hers. She cracked a sleepy smile.

"Morning, cherry blossom. Did you have a good sleep?"

The little girl nodded, and quietly reached chubby arms out towards her mother. Lin slowly propped herself up and bit back the urge to groan. Half the time she woke up feeling like one giant bruise. Though, to be fair, it didn’t help that she apprehended a group of thugs last night after a rather frustrating tri-element battle. That’ll do something to the joints. 

After a quick stretch of the arms, she took her daughter up and into her lap. Chen wasted no time getting comfortable, and nuzzled tightly into Lin’s chest. “Mama, warm. Warm, warm, warm.”

Lin tightly wrapped her arms around Chen and pressed kisses to the crown of her head, her hair still adorably mussed from sleep. Spirits, three years since she was born and she still had that fresh baby smell. Hopefully it never left.

She retreated under the covers once more, Chen still in her arms. She was so warm, and so sweet, and kind. Just the other day she saw a lizardfrog without a home at the local pond, so she made one out of sticks and moss. And it was true that some needed physical homes, but Lin’s home was with Chen. As long as she had her, all was right with the world.

Lin fully reclined back into her pillows, a hand cradling Chen’s head. Just as she felt truly comfortable, a tinny ring jolted her out of her calm. Chen instinctively hugged her neck and tucked herself as tightly as she could against her mother’s chest so she could avoid the sound. Lin looked over at her alarm clock and groaned--how was it 7:00 already?

Shifting Chen to one side, Lin grasped thin air until she stopped the infernal ringing. She sighed as she looked down at the small bundle curled against her. “C’mon, Chen, it’s time to get ready for work,” she soothed.

Chen looked up for a moment. “Can we stay? Please, Mama?”

Lin smiled wistfully and cupped her daughter’s face. What she wouldn’t give to spend all day in bed with her! But crime waited for no one, and neither did those comically tall stacks of reports she needed to complete. “I wish we could, cherry blossom, but Mama has to work. Come on, let’s open the curtains. We need some light in here.”

The little girl wilted ever so slightly, then nodded and leaned her head against Lin’s shoulder. Lin kissed her forehead, then eased the both out of bed and to the curtains. With a theatrical flourish, she opened them wide to find--

Rain.  _ Pouring  _ rain.

Normally, Lin had a stunning view of the city that extended all the way down to the bay. This time, however, it was obfuscated by dark grey rain clouds, rivulets of water streaming across the windowpane glass. She put a hand against the window to get a closer look, but drew back with surprise after feeling how icy cold it was.

They were supposed to go out in  _ that  _ weather?

She sighed and adjusted Chen in her arms. She was Republic City’s Chief of Police--it was her responsibility to oversee its safety, day in, day out. It was her job, and she knew what it was like, knew what she was getting into. Had she not grown up the Chief’s daughter? Had her mother not done the exact same thing, never tiring in her pursuit for justice? 

And  _ yet _ .

Even still she detested that her mother had prioritized work over her and Su. While all the other kids’ parents would be at the open houses or the talent shows or parent/teacher conferences, hers would be absent. Aunt Katara would step in, of course, but it just wasn’t the same. She would have given  _ anything  _ if Toph had taken just one hour off to focus on them, and nothing else.

Would she become that mom? 

Could she live with herself if she did?

Lin clutched Chen tightly to her and buried her face in her daughter’s hair, hoping it would stem the tears threatening to overflow. She couldn’t do that to Chen. She couldn’t, she couldn’t, she  _ couldn’t.  _

After everything that had happened, she thought that she was destined for nothing but eating bitterness. She wasn’t a spiritual person, but somehow...somehow the spirits had smiled upon her. Chen was nothing short of a miracle, given to her when she needed it most. She owed it to that sweet little girl to be the best mother she could possibly be. 

And if that meant taking a day off and doing nothing but lying around in bed, then fuck it, that’s exactly what she was going to do.

Lin brushed her eyes and cheeks with the back of her hand before she gently cradled Chen’s face in her palm. Chen looked curiously up at her. “Hey, cherry blossom,” she found herself cooing, “What do you say we skip work and stay in our pajamas all day?”

The little girl immediately brightened and clapped her hands together in glee. “Yes! Yes, Yes! Yes please, Mama!”

Lin laughed and kissed her daughter’s cheeks. Any worry she had melted away--Chen had the ability to do that with a single smile. 

“Let me call Uncle Saikhan, okay?” she said to Chen. Chen, eyes wide with attention, nodded silently. Lin leaned over to dial the extension, then rested her daughter on her hip as she juggled the receiver and the earpiece. Could she put Chen down to make the call? Yes. Will she put Chen down? Absolutely not. There’s going to come a day when she can’t carry her around, and until that day comes her daughter will be firmly in her arms.

“Lieutenant Saikhan,” he greeted, his voice gravelly yet formal. Poor man. Alta, his daughter, had probably kept him up half the night again.

“Saikhan,” she returned crisply. “I trust the precinct is running smoothly?”

“As always, though the shift won’t start for another 20 minutes.”

“Good. I’m going to need you to keep it that way.”

“Of course.”

“No, I mean for all of today. I’m taking the day off, Saikhan,” Lin clarified, gently shifting Chen in her arms while cradling the receiver in the crook of her neck.

She heard a shift and a pause. Spirits knew he was trying to process what she just said. “A day...off? As in, a day off work?”

“Yes, unless there’s another type of day off I’m unaware of. You should try it sometime, Saikhan. This Monday, actually.”

“Lin are you…” he paused, searching for words. “You know you can tell me if you’re in trouble, right? Or if you need help? Wait, Chen--is she okay? Please tell me she is, I can have Ma--”

“Saikhan, I am not in trouble, I promise,” she cut him off. Was she really so wed to her job that he was  _ panicked  _ she wasn’t coming in? “I’m okay, Chen’s okay, we’re both okay. Trust me, you’d know if we weren’t.”

“That doesn’t comfort me much, Lin,” he replied. “But I’ll see you Mon--”

She raised her eyebrow. No double 

“Tuesday. I’ll see you Tuesday.”

“Right. As you were.”

“Chief.” 

With a small, self-satisfied smile, she hung up the phone and turned to Chen. “Do you want to make breakfast? Or do you want to cuddle more?” 

Chen beamed and tightened her arms around her mother’s neck.

“Cuddling it is,” Lin whispered, pressing a kiss to her daughter’s forehead and carrying them both to her bed.

Oh, today was going to be  _ marvelous. _


End file.
